[caption id="attachment_2094" align="alignleft" width="300"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-2094" title="Alaine Johnson and her husband" alt="Alaine Johnson and her husband" src="http://news.sjvc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/alaine-300x199.jpg" width="300" height="199" /> Alaine's past has taken her through banking and other odd jobs, medical work, before settling down at SJVC.[/caption]

<a title="SJVC Modesto" href="http://www.sjvc.edu/modesto/" target="_blank">Modesto</a> Health Studies Division Manager Alaine Johnson, while now an experienced health-worker-turned-instructor, was not always in the medical field.

Alaine’s career started in banking. For over seventeen years, she continued on this path. After becoming a Commercial Banking Officer for Bank of America, she had a realization:

“It wasn’t what I really wanted to do,” she says. “It just wasn’t very rewarding.”

So after nearly two decades in the workforce, Alaine returned to school. She got two Associate’s Degrees, one in Clinical Medical Assisting and the other in Medical Office Administration. It was with these qualifications that she started down her next path in life.

She started at the Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula (or CHOMP as she and her colleagues called it). As a lab assistant, she proved a vital and effective part of the diagnostic process. After ten years of hard work, she had gained a passion for her work, and became Administrative Assistant to the Laboratory Director.

But her life would take an unexpected turn when tragedy struck. Alaine’s brother was killed in a car wreck. The laboratory technician and her husband moved back to Modesto to be with family.

They were not quite sure what they would do when they got there. Alaine had lived around Monterey for around forty years, and was now in a new place with no job. It was then that Stephanie Baughn, an SJVC medical assisting instructor and a friend of hers, suggested she look into work at the college. She was brought in. Her first night working the campus dean entered and offered Alaine full time work.

Now, Alaine serves as the Health Studies Division Manager, where she oversees five different programs: <a title="Pharmacy Technology program" href="http://www.sjvc.edu/pharmacy-technology/" target="_blank">Pharmacy Technology</a>, <a title="Medical Office program" href="http://www.sjvc.edu/medical-office/" target="_blank">Medical Office Administration</a>, <a title="Therapeutic Massage program" href="http://www.sjvc.edu/therapeutic-massage/" target="_blank">Therapeutic Massage</a>, and both the <a title="Medical Assistant program" href="http://www.sjvc.edu/medical-assistant/" target="_blank">CMA</a> and <a title="Medical Assistant program" href="http://www.sjvc.edu/medical-assistant/" target="_blank">CAMA</a> programs.

But Alaine’s favorite part of her job is not curricula, administration, or management, but working with her students.

“I love seeing SJVC students turn the corner, when they get the big picture,” says Alaine. “I like watching the transformation from timidity to confidence in the workplace. As an instructor it’s exciting to hear students come back and say they’re earning good money.”

“She’s really good at working with students to help them make their goals,” says Sean Hancock, Modesto Campus Director. “She has a sincere desire to work through their challenges. She is earnest yet kind, and has a passionate approach with her students.”

But she is quick to point out that she would not be able to do any of it without all the dedicated faculty members on her team. The successes of their programs are the products of teamwork, not of any single individual.

Just this last year, she received an award recognizing her valuable work. American Medical Technologists named her Outstanding Educator of the Year for 2013.

“I love my job,” she says simply.

And SJVC is all the better for that fact. Students and staff alike appreciate Alaine for her hard work and compassionate manner.

SJVC is lucky to have her.